The Free Voice

I never knew the name of Ravish Kumar until he got the Magsaysay award last year. I do not watch television news because they are a complete waste of time. They show endless debates, views, points and counter points throughout the day. The anchor takes a holier than though approach to everything. He knows everything. He questions every one. He generally shouts. While he is at it, some 4 to 12 participants are either shouting at each other or are raising hand, trying to say something and wanting to generally be heard. I do not consider this worthy of my time at all.

On facebook I had once unfriended a guy simply because he posted shots of his appearance on an Arnab Goswami show. And Arnab was yet to launch his channel. I think people who agree to appear on such shows are sick and unworthy of being even my facebook friends.

So once I found someone from this crop had got a Magsaysay award I paused a bit and googled him up. He is a Hindi anchor of NDTV. I came across an interview of the man that he gave to some other youtube channel. I simply loved what he was saying. He was basically attacking this brand of journalism and advocating that people stop watching TV channels including his own. He was also extremely anti-establishment, which right now means anti-BJP. I felt like I was watching myself speak in eloquent Hindi about today's television media. 

One of the first things I did, after discovering Ravish Kumar was to subscribe to NDTV Hindi. I wanted to listen to him. For the life of me, for the first few months, I couldn't find when his show was. Till date I have seen only one of his live programmes. I have of course watched a few of his shows on youtube. I love the way he speaks. I love what he says because he says exactly things that I want to say. 

So when I discovered this book on the shelves of Story I didn't waste any time and immediately purchased it. Finished reading it in no time. One of the fastest reads in recent times.

What is it that I liked about the book? I think it stands for certain values that I hold very dear in life. His sense of what is journalism, his courage to stand against constant life threat and to keep on hammering his point of view despite all the hate and threats. Agreed there is no literary value in the book. Yet it is an important document for our times. Every student of journalism today should read this book.